Law and Software

Two things surprised me about the obamacare websites. The first was that (at least for Covered California) the errors thrown by an overloaded system on the last evening for enrollment were java exceptions. The second was the proud claim that the federal site was able to handle 60k visitors at a time and 800k in a day. more…

I am on a “dormant” mail-alias for software migration. Software migration is a polite way of referring to the process of ripping out an old API from your software application, and replacing it with something more modern. Like when you flip a house for resale and give it a new kitchen and a fresh coat of paint. This nightmare process pwns you when your user interface toolkit (like Motif) finally bites the dust. You either throw away your software and start again, or migrate to another toolkit (like Qt)  that is likely heading the same way – but your competitors are all using the “new” one, so it must be ok. more…